Boccia player Leung Yuk-wing has soared into the semifinals of the individual BC4 boccia event at the Tokyo Paralympics after easily winning his quarterfinal match against Slovakia’s Michaela Balcova.
Leung led the first three games 5-0. In the last game, opponent Balcova threw the jack - the target ball - to a back corner, but Leung was able to land a throw that was close to the target ball.
Balcova launched all six of his balls first. Leung then used his remaining balls to push the target ball out of the playable area, returning it to the center of the playing area.
He then threw his last three balls close to the jack, gaining three points and took the match by a score of 8-0.
Teammate Vivian Lau Wai-yan faced off against Slovenian Samuel Andrejcik - the silver medalist of the event at the Rio 2016 games - in her quarterfinals. She eventually lost by a score of 1-4 and thus will not proceed to the semifinals, but she will return for the doubles.
“I didn’t do well during the game, and I hope I can keep my head cool under pressure in the next matches,” she said in a post-match interview.
Meanwhile, Yeung Hiu-lam was knocked out of the individual BC2 event by Brazil’s Maciel Santos in a tight 5-6 game.
Leung is now the only Hongkonger still in contention for an individual boccia medal after the defeats of Lau and Yueng.
In swimming, all three representatives from Hong Kong - Tang Wai-lok, Chan Yui-lam and Cheung Ho-ying - were knocked out in the preliminary rounds of their 200m Individual Medley - SM14 events.
